My Prayer Routine

+J.M.J.+

Questions on my prayer life as a stay at home mom are some of the most frequent I receive. I am sharing this to hopefully help other moms who reach out to me wanting ideas for their own prayer life or how to pray with kids.

{I know when I post this there are going to be some eager to let me know how this routine wouldn’t work for them or won’t be realistic for me when I am at X place in my life. That’s okay… this is about what works for me right where God has me right now, so please, take anything that may work for you and leave what doesn’t without leaving unnecessary negative commentary.}

All of these prayers and times of spiritual reading don’t always happen every single day. I’d say I get about to 85% of them on the average day, sometimes all, sometimes less.

I keep all of my various prayer books in a little basket. Having them all together means it can go where I go easier and so I’m more likely to follow through.

Outline of My Daily Prayers

Waking: When the alarm goes off at 6 am, Ethan and I immediately pray the Angelus, and quietly our morning offerings.

• “Oh my God, I offer Thee my every thoughts, words, and deeds of this day, in union with the Sacred Heart of Jesus, for all of the intentions for which He pleads and offers Himself in the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass. In thanksgiving for Thy favors, in reparation for my offenses, and in humble supplication for my temporal and eternal welfare, I wish to gain all of the indulgences attached to the prayers I shall say, and for the good works I shall perform this day. Amen.”

Mental Prayer: Immediately after waking and praying our Angelus and morning offering, we have 20 minutes of mental prayer time using the simple one page Mental-Prayer-Guide that Fr. Dennis Gordon FSSP allowed me to share in this post here.

I don’t know of a better way to minimize distractions and to converse so easily with God as using this guide. If prayer is difficult for you and you only take one thing away from this post, let it be the Mental-Prayer-Guide!

As the guide suggests, I pray using a holy image, a crucifix, or a book of spiritual reading. By far my favorite book of spiritual reading is The Imitation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus by Father Peter Arnoudt.

This is a profoundly beautiful book of rich conversations between Christ and you, His disciple. It manages to somehow be easy to understand, despite its depth. I never grow tired of it, and no matter what is happening in my life, there is a chapter that speaks directly to my heart. I have a gorgeous leather bound copy that I was given years ago, but this paperback copy on Amazon is the same book. 

Morning Prayer With the Girls: After breakfast I kneel with girls in front of our home altar where we pray the guardian angel prayer, an Our Father, a Hail Mary, a Glory Be, and then we thank God for bringing us safely through the night and ask Jesus to please help us to do all of our work and play for love of Him and for the salvation of souls. We also each list something we are thankful for.

Mid Morning: – At some point during the morning when the girls are occupied I say the little daily prayer for children as part of being in the Confraternity of Christian Mothers. I also try to read the morning prayers in the Mother Love prayer book or read the Mass and the pages on the saint of the day from The Liturgical Year by Dom Gueranger. If anything tends gets neglected in my daily routine, it is usually the Mid-Morning prayer.

Evening Rosary: At 7 pm each night we gather in the living room with the girls right before bedtime and pray the Rosary.

Sometimes if we have a very important intention we will pray the 54 Day Rosary Novena using this booklet found here. It has wonderful meditations for each mystery that you can use whenever you pray the Rosary if you find you are distracted while making crowns for Our Lady!

Before Sleep: Right before I fall asleep I cross myself, pray the guardian angel prayer, and a few prayers to St. Philomena, my chosen patron.

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A complete list of what is in my basket is:

The Imitation of the Sacred Heart of Jesus
Mother Love
The Liturgical Year
The Original Mother’s Manual
The Essential Wisdom of the Saints
The Mental-Prayer-Guide 

I hope by sharing this you have found new resources that may help you in your own prayer life. It is true that as a mother I will not get to spend long long hours in formal prayer. I am called to make my work in raising my children and upkeeping my domestic church a prayer, but my time spent in more “formal” prayer is very valued and of great benefit.

If you are interested in seeing what a typical day in my life is like, I have that routine in this post here.